How Fortune 500s Use Vendor-Managed Inventory for SaaS

Episode notes

Episode 35 of Enterprise Tech with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna explore how Fortune 500 companies are adopting vendor-managed inventory (VMI) principles from manufacturing and applying them to SaaS subscriptions to cut costs and reduce over-licensing. The episode centers on a case study: a global consumer goods company that saved $12 million annually by letting its top ten software vendors monitor usage data and automatically adjust seat counts. Lucas explains the shift from annual true-up audits to real-time VMI agreements, the role of API-based data sharing, and why procurement teams are initially skeptical of handing over control. Luna pushes back on data privacy risks and vendor lock-in concerns. The conversation also touches on the rise of VMI-as-a-service platforms like Vendr and Torii that broker these deals. A natural break leads into a brief donation segment tied to the value of practical procurement insights. No prior episode has covered VMI for software procurement.